Abu Nasr Farakh Farabi was born in Wasji,near Farab in Turkistan in 870 AD.
His ancestors had migrated to Turkistan. Know as al-Phrarabius in Europe, Farabi was the son of a general. He completed his early education at Farab and Bukhara but went to Baghdad for higher studies, and stayed there from 901 AD to 942 AD. During this period he acquired mastery over several languages as well as various branches of knowledge and technology. He lived through the reign of six Abbasid Caliphs.
Farabi traveled to many lands and studied for some time in Damascus and Egypt, but repeatedly came back to Baghdad, until he visited Saif al-Daula’s court in Halab (Allepo). During his early years, he was a judge, but later took up teaching as his profession. He died a bachelor in Damascus in 950 AD at the age of 80.
Farabi contributed considerably to science, Philosophy, logics, sociology, medicine, mathematics and music. He also stands out as an Encyclopedist. As a philosopher, he may be classed as Neoplatonist who tried to synethesize Platonism and Aristotelism with theology and he wrote rich commentaries on Aristotle’s physics, meterology and logics in addition to several books. He came to be known as the Second Teacher, Aristotle being the first. One of the important contributions of Farabi was to make the study pg logics easier by dividing it into two categories:
Takhayyul (idea) and Thubut (proof0.
In sociology, he wrote several books out of which Ara Ahl al-Fadila became famous. His books on psychology and metaphysics were largely based on his own work. He also wrote a book on music, captioned Kitab al-Musiqa. He was a great expert in the art and science of music and invented several musical instruments, besides contributing to the knowledge of musical notes.
In physics he demonstrated the existence of
void.
Although many of his books have been lost, 117 are known, out of which 43 are on logics, 11 on metaphysics, seven on ethics, seven on political sciences, 17 on music, medicine and sociology, while 11 are commentaries. Some of his more remained a textbook of philosophy for several centuries and is still taught at Eastern institutions. The book kitab al-Ulum discusses classification and fundamental principles of science in a unique and useful manner.
Farabi exercised great influence on science and knowledge for several centuries.
